Horror as Dissonance: Genre Configurations in Soviet Cinema
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2317-4765.rus.2025.237804Keywords:
Soviet Union, Soviet cinema, Horror genre, Cultural StudiesAbstract
The article analyzes the presence and configuration of the horror genre in Soviet cinema, focusing on the period from 1922 to 1991. The hypothesis is that horror, historically associated with the irrational and the symbolic, was marginalized under the Soviet regime for being considered incompatible with socialist realism and the dominant ideology. However, the genre manifested itself as an aesthetic of discomfort, anguish, and the unconscious through strategies such as allegory, folkloric or literary adaptation, and the incorporation of gothic atmospheres and unsettling narratives. Drawing from Cultural Studies and employing cultural analysis as a methodology, and based on authors such as Alexander Herbert, Jamie Miller, David Gillespie, Kendall Phillips, Ian Conrich, Stuart Hall, and Lukasz Szulc, the article argues that Soviet horror constituted a language of crisis and cultural dissonance, revealing tensions within the state’s ideological project and its representations of the world.
Downloads
References
ADRIANO, Carlos. A estética do Necro-Realismo. Folha de São Paulo. Publicado em 23 nov. 2003. Disponível em: <https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/fsp/mais/fs2311200309.htm>. Acesso em: 09 jun. 2025.
BANERJEE, Anindita. Russian science fiction literature and cinema: a critical reader. Boston, USA: Academic Studies Press, 2018.
CONRICH, Ian. Horror zone: The Cultural experience of contemporary horror cinema. London: I.B Tauris, 2010.
DALTON, Stephen. Tarkovsky, Solaris, and Stalker. In: BANERJEE, Anindita. Russian science fiction literature and cinema: a critical reader. Boston, USA: Academic Studies Press, 2018, p. 281-289.
DU GAY, Paul et al. Doing Cultural Studies: The story of the Sony Walkman. London: Sage, 1997.
GILLESPIE, David. Russian Cinema. United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited, 2003.
HALL, Stuart. Cultura e Representação. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. PUC-Rio: Apicuri, 2016.
HALL, Stuart. Da diáspora: identidades e representações culturais. Org: Liv Sovik. Belo Horizonte: Editora UFMG; Brasília: Representação da UNESCO no Brasil, 2003.
HERBERT, Alexander. Fear Before the Fall: Horror Films in the Late Soviet Union. United Kingdom: Zero Books, 2023.
ISAKAVA, Volha. Horror genre in national cinemas of East Slavic countries. Studia Filmoznawcze, n. 35, Wroclaw, 2014, p. 119-139. Disponível em: <https://wuwr.pl/sf/article/view/1541>. Acesso em: 04 jun. 2025.
KOTWICKI, Andrew. Cult Cinema: Veld (1987) - Reviewed. The Movie Sleuth. Publicado em: 31 jul. 2023. Disponível em: <https://www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com/2023/07/CultCinemaVeld1987Reviewed.html>. Acesso em: 02 jun. 2025.
NEUBERGER, Joan. Ivan the Terrible. In: SALYS, Rimgaila (org.). The Russian Cinema Reader: 1908 to the Stalin Era. Boston, USA: Academic Studies Press, 2013, p. 269-303.
NEWMAN, Sam. Best Russian Horror Movies: From the Soviet Union to Today. Creepy Catalog. Publicado em: 21 jul. 2023. Disponível em: <https://creepycatalog.com/best-russian-horror-movies-list/>. Acesso em: 09 jun. 2025.
NIKULIN, Lev. No Horror in the Soviet Union?. Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia. Publicado em: 26 abr. 2019. Disponível em: <https://jordanrussiacenter.org/blog/no-horror-in-the-soviet-union>. Acesso em: 02 jun. 2025.
MILLER, Jamie. Soviet Cinema: Politics and Persuasion under Stalin. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2010.
PHILLIPS, Kendall. Projected fears: horror films and American culture. Westport, USA: Praeger, 2005.
SZULC, Lukasz. Culture is transnational. International Journal of Cultural Studies, v.26, n.1, 3-15, 2023. Disponível em: <https://doi.org/10.1177/13678779221131349>. Acesso em: 08 jun. 2025.
SOARES JÚNIOR, Luiz. O cinema de Yevgeni Bauer: as núpcias faustosas entre a Morte e a Beleza. À pala de Walsh. Publicado em: 26 abr. 2014. Disponível em: <https://apaladewalsh.com/2014/04/o-cinema-de-yevgeni-bauer-as-nupcias-faustosas-entre-a-morte-e-a-beleza/>. Acesso em: 1 jun. 2025.
WILLIAMS, Raymond. La larga revolución. Buenos Aires: Nueva Visión, 2003.
YOUNGBLOOD, Denise J. Early Russian Cinema 1908-1919. In: SALYS, Rimgaila (org.). The Russian Cinema Reader: 1908 to the Stalin Era. Boston, USA: Academic Studies Press, 2013, p. 14-31.
YURDIGÜL, Aslı; YURDIGÜL, Yusuf. Horror films as a genre in the history of Soviet cinema: genre analysis of the film Viy. Voprosy Istorii, Moscou, n. 5, p. 194–205, 2022. Disponível em: <https://voprosyistorii.ru/article/view/3426>. Acesso em: 1 jun. 2025.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Lucas Fortes
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in RUS agree to the following terms:
a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
